Effect of moisture content on textural attributes of dried figs

Due to their soft texture consumers prefer moist figs, which has motivated fig processors to increase the production of this product. However, as water enhances the browning reaction rate, moisture content optimisation of moist figs is very important. Processed figs must have suitable texture softness with browning kept to a minimum. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of moisture content on the textural attributes of dried figs. Hardness, compression energy, gradient, gumminess and chewiness of fig samples decreased with moisture content exponentially, whereas the trend of springiness and cohesiveness with change of moisture content was nearly constant. Moreover, in the texture profile analysis plot of rehydrated figs, the presence of negative area is an indication of adhesiveness which was zero in control dried figs. The results of the texture profile analysis tests proved the existence of a critical moisture content of about 18.4%, above which no significant effect of moisture content on textural parameters was found. The glass-rubber transition results from differential scanning calorimeter may explain the different texture profile analysis attributes of dried figs compared with rehydrated figs.